The Water Lily jacket

The idea for this project has been percolating in my head for a while, and finally a pattern came along that kickstarted me to make it come to life. Yes, turns out a pastel lilac spring jacket was exactly what my wardrobe needed and it’s really put a bit more colour and variety into my last few days of me-made May.

So weird confession first: this is one of the very first jackets I’ve both sewn and owned. Being a rare type who doesn’t feel the cold that much, I typically wear a coat for the proper winter months, switch out to a knitwear layer for the in-between-y months, and shrug off all outerwear and go t-shirt-sleeves as soon as it’s reliably above about fifteen degrees. But this spring I felt like challenging my layering-ambivalence and having a go at making a garment that could work on top of a tee, be a useful barrier to my sometimes overly-chilly office and feel a bit more put-together than my usual cardi or sweatshirt.

I swooped on the Lysimaque Patterns’ Nénuphar jacket as soon as I saw it in my Instagram feed. I was mostly taken in by the gorgeous patchworked and colour-blocked sample but also realised that it was just the right simple project to test out my jacket needs in a low-stakes sort of way. It’s a very simple but impactful and practical design. The body is basically square with tapered dropped-shoulder sleeves, a stand-less collar (I also have a weird aversion to collars) and lovely huge pockets with an overlapped little chest pocket just for fun. No plackets, cuffs, linings etc to deal with: this lack of fussy detailing and finishing techniques appealed to both my minimalist and lazy tendencies. Win-win.

I was fairly happy with the pattern itself. I did struggle a bit with alignment of the A4 PDF as there are no page borders or match points which I think led to some seams not matching perfectly. The instructions are supplemented with sketchy illustrations and are translated from French into English. I didn’t find some areas super clear, like hemming the lower edge to get a clean finish at the front and the standless collar attachment method, but mostly figured it out using prior art, so I wouldn’t necessarily recommend this if you need more hand-holding. (I have given this feedback to Lysimaque’s owner and she is very open to feedback and providing more guidance.)

I cut a size 40 and am quite happy with the fit. The upper back is a bit too broad but I think that’s to be expected in a boxy drop-shoulder style and I wouldn’t want to over-fit it as you’d probably lose some of the range of motion. The sleeves are a touch short and quite narrow at the hem but I like the wristbone length, and the proportion of the body length is spot on for me.

I used a Robert Kaufman Ventana Twill from my stash, bought originally for Lander pants but I actually find this twill too thin and unstructured for Landers. It’s perfect for this jacket though and quickly put paid to my fears of woven jackets feeling more uncomfortable and restrictive than my usual knitwear. 

I finished the jacket with my favourite flat metal buttons from Textile Garden, and did matching copper buttonholes: partly because I thought it’d look nice and partly because my spool of lilac thread ran out just as I was finishing the topstitched hem. I didn’t achieve the neatest finish at the collar-placket meeting point and I’m a bit worried the area feels quite weak and might fray over time. I sewed some bar tacks at the intersection point to try and reinforce it a bit. I chose to faux-flat-fell the other main seams ie overlocked them together then topstitched 5mm from the seam.

I wouldn’t have necessarily selected this lilac colour for a goes-with-everything jacket but weirdly I’m finding it really does pair nicely with large swathes of my wardrobe and I’ve certainly been reaching for it regularly since I finished it. I am unexpectedly keen on it buttoned up as well as loose and I like that it can be worn indoors as well as out as it feels quite shirt-like. I’m not sure I need another one right away but I’m definitely keeping an eye out for a nice forest green or black peached twill for a potential second go.

3 thoughts on “The Water Lily jacket

  1. Helen

    Oh, I love this! I’ve been searching for a perfect spring/summer jacket that’s not denim, or black, or green (I already own 2 olive green jackets) and this has given me a lot of inspiration, thank you!

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